The present invention is directed generally to solar energy collector devices and is more particularly concerned with substrates for solar energy collector devices containing photovoltaic cells which are designed to maximize utilization of the incident light impinging upon such a collector by receiving essentially all of the light on an operable portion of a photovoltaic cell.
In the photovoltaic cell or solar cell art, the terms solar panel and solar receiver are used to describe devices including an array of interconnected solar cells, the former term being used when the device is adapted to receive incident light and the latter term being used when the device is adapted to receive light concentrated by mirrors, lenses and the like. As used herein, the term solar collector device encompasses both such device types.
Known solar collector devices are generally of the construction where an array of interconnected solar cells are mounted on a planar substrate, the light receiving surface of each cell being coplanar with adjacent cells. Since a significant portion of the light receiving surface of a conventional solar cell is occupied by the external electrical contacting area for the cell and that portion is unable to function in the manner of a photovoltaic cell, a significant percentage of the light receiving surface area of the collector device is consequently not capable of generating electrical energy from incident light. Especially in receiver type devices, this inoperable portion of the device constitutes a serious inefficiency in extracting all available energy from the light received by the collector device.